The Better Supervillain

Hey, thanks for reading. And if you just scrolled down here, thanks for at least coming to this page! This was a persuasive essay that I did for school, where I got to choose the topic to write about. Weird topic? You could say that... :D

Superheroes are a common thing in movies, TV, and especially comic books. These people fight for what’s right in the world, saving people from untimely death and stopping the terror caused by their rivals. These rivals are evil: they have an arsenal of weapons that they’re not afraid to use, and of course harbor a twisted mind and a twisted conscience. These Supervillains, as they’re called, have come and gone over the years, each one possessing a certain amount of talent and skill at their dirty craft. Some have been better than others. The two that stand out are The Joker from The Dark Knight movie and The Green Goblin from the Spider-man movie. Each villain provides their Superhero with someone fierce and hard to beat. But who, out of these two, is the better Supervillain? Who is the meanest and the nastiest, the most ruthless and the most malicious? The Joker from The Dark Knight movie provides a better Supervillain figure than The Green Goblin from The Spiderman movie. First, The Joker is a better villain because he is more realistic than the Green Goblin. He came to be by his own choice. The Green Goblin came to be because he took a performance-enhancing drug with insanity inducing side effects, which he did not even know the drug would cause. How can The Green Goblin be the better Supervillain when he didn’t even want to be one in the first place? The Joker is also more realistic because while the Goblin steals flying boards and other weapons that could not possibly exist, The Joker sticks with real weapons such as knives, chemicals, guns, and in a resourceful moment, a pencil. With the uses of these weapons, The Joker becomes not just a fear on the big screen, but a fear that can stay with you when you leave the theater. Being able to scare people in two worlds like that makes The Joker far superior to The Green Goblin. The Joker is also a better Supervillain because he can get into the minds of his enemies and turn them bad, as he did to Harvey Dent, the District Attorney of Gotham City. Through his twisted sense of the way things should be, he killed Dent’s girlfriend and eventually corrupted his mind, turning Dent into Two-Face. This new villain was responsible for numerous deaths. My opponents might offer that The Green Goblin also turned his son Harry to the dark side, but the fact is that a father would have more control and influence over his son than The Joker would over the DA. Kids are influenced by their parents all the time, according to The Fatherhood Institute. They say that a father can positively or negatively affect a child’s education, relationships, and otherwise, even more than a mother can. Along with the influence The Green Goblin already had over his son, there was jealousy in the mix too. Peter Parker, AKA Spider-man, was very smart and great at science. Harry Osmond, AKA The Green Goblin, was very impressed with Peter and made it clear that he wanted him as a son. It didn’t help that Peter Parker was friends with The Green Goblin’s actual son, meaning everyone had chances to meet and spread the tension and jealousy. Anyway, it was a far dirtier act to corrupt the mind of a very good and powerful individual such as Harvey Dent, who had already put most of Gotham City’s criminals behind bars. The fact that The Joker did do this shows the complete devotion he has to snaking into the minds and consciences of his rivals, making him again the better villain. The Joker is a better Supervillain once again in the realm of causing trouble for his Superhero. The Green Goblin kidnapped Spiderman’s girlfriend (she was rescued) and hurt his Aunt (no major damage), plus he was killed at the end of the movie. The Joker blew up Batman’s former lover, turned the best man in the city into yet another villain, found that Batman would not kill people and used that to make sure he could never be stopped, and forced his counterpart to become a villain in the eyes of all the people that he’d saved. He was not killed at the end of the movie, and as he says, “[To Batman while hanging upside down from a building] You won’t kill me because of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won’t kill you because…you’re just too much fun! I think you and I are destined to do this forever.” The Joker wants a game of cat-and-mouse forever, through all eternity and beyond, for fun. If that’s not some serious trouble for Batman, then I don’t know what is. Lastly, The Joker is a better Supervillain because his motives are far scarier than those of The Green Goblin. All the Goblin wants to do is kill Spider-man. The Joker doesn’t even want to do that. In the movie, he says, “[After Batman asks Joker why he wants to kill him] I don’t want to kill you. What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No…no, no. No, you…complete me.” So what does he want? Not money. After getting a whole stack of money from “ripping off mob dealers” he burns it. All he wants is anarchy. He says, “Introduce a little anarchy…upset the established order…and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos.” This motive is scarier because it affects every person, not just a few (Spider-man, his loved ones, and the people who happen to be standing near Spider-man) like the Green Goblin’s motive. This motive also makes for a better Supervillain because it ensures the randomness of The Joker’s acts, since he enjoys anarchy. In conclusion, The Joker is a better Supervillain than The Green Goblin. This is because unlike The Green Goblin, he is more realistic in his weapons and in his choices, is able to corrupt the minds of people and commit unspeakable acts against his Superhero, can scare people on and off the screen, and has a motive that affects every single person in a terrifying way.

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I remember my teacher once gave me a persuasive essay to do. Partly because of sheer laziness and partly because I have a habit of intellectually rebelling, I did a persuasive essay titled 'The Persuasive Essay in Which I Convince the Reader That Fictional Writing is Better Than Nonfiction, Especially Persuasive Essays'. The teacher was amused and promised me that she would not give me another nonfiction assignment. (This was, unfortunately, a false promise, as it was the only nonfiction... (more »)